Sunday, July 7, 2013

7 July 2013 Release the hounds

Cassi Creek: Or,
release the hound! We’ve only the single
dog, Loki. She’s recovered very well
from being bitten by an un-seen venomous snake.
She has resumed all her prior activities and now pulls anti-squirrel
duties again.

Gloria has an
array of bird feeders in the back yard that are greatly tempting to the local
tree rat population. She has provided
them their own squirrel feeder, but they apparently view that as backup or
dessert. The five recognizable residents
have managed to circumvent all the anti-squirrel devices and tactics we
apply.

Loki will lie
in the office and look out at the platform feeder. In the game she has developed for her own amusement,
the squirrels may visit any part of the deck, except the platform feeder, with
only limited response from Loki. Once
they leap onto the platform feeder, she is up, jumping at the door, barking to announce
the intruder(s).

At that
point, one of us will let her out the door.
The squirrels take off in five different directions as Loki tears a path
out and off the deck. She has to decide
which one of the five to follow as they flee for the safety of trees. When she comes back inside, she is always
quite pleased with her performance. The
squirrels seem to enjoy the game as well.
They will usually return within 15-30 minutes to start the whole process
over again.

The Asiana
214 crash at SFO has mostly supplanted the Zimmerman trial in today’s
news. I must admit that I am interested
in hearing the defense’s expert witness, Vincent J.M. DiMaio, M.D. He wrote: